The Hogmanay Horsie came out to play for New Year at our friends Norm and Lauren's place in Nerriga, NSW. While we all relaxed and played games in the run up to midnight, the scope was working away on this image, snapping through the odd thin high cloud.

The Horsehead Nebula is a distinctive dark dust cloud that's part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex 1500 light-years away in the constellation of Orion, silhouetted against the bright background of the emission nebula IC434. It sits next to the bright star Alnitak, the eastern star of Orion's Belt. It's a colourful region, with the blue reflection nebula NGC2023 just to the lower left of the horse, and Alnitak illuminates the Flame Nebula, NGC2024 at the lower left of the picture.